External Hard drive shut down

External hard drive, shut it down or leave it running 24/7.

Hi Tom
Yes they do have their own power supply, however no on/off switch.
I don't suppose it will do any damage to leave them on. Seems a bit of a fact to have to unplug them when not in use.
Thanks again
Mark

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My coworker's external hard drive slowing down my computer

Hello,
I have a question. My coworker plugged in his external hard drive to my iMac with a USB, and he has to run its files everyday through network from his computer. The reason he does this is because his old iMac cannot read his newly formate external hard drive. I feel like my computer is slowing down. Is what he's doing slowing down my computer? Is there a way to not let the external drive using my CPU or memory? Is there a way to set it to low priority?
Thanks.

Since your current editing workflow is based around Virtual Copies there are no actual files containing the edit data. Therefore, you'll need to use the 'Import from another catalog' option ( see File menu).

External hard drive spinning down (and up) on it's own

I thought my 5 month old external 1tb dual drive was dying at first, but now am seeing a pattern. There is a forum over at macrumors about this. http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=445690
I always make sure in my energy settings i have spin down external drives unchecked, because it's known that spin downs and ups can cause drives to fail sooner. Yet I now find my external drive spinning down whenever it's not in use while I'm sitting at my computer, and i hear it spin up at the most random times, even when i'm not using my computer. sometimes in the middle of the night. This did not happen in tiger.
It's connected by firewire 800. At first I thought it was time machine but others in the macrumors forum claim it isn't that. I almost think its network activity. I'm considering using an applescript to access the drive every 5 or ten minutes automatically yet not do anything just to see if this stops it from spinning it down. I do consider this an annoyance and would hope apple will figure out what it is very soon, before it causes any detriment to the life of my expensive drive.

did you ever find a fix for this?
my ext FW800 drives constantly spin down, then when i do something later i get the beachball until they spin back up

Hard Drive shutting Down, beeps and fan turns on

Have new Lenovo K100, model 57061334, purchased on TigerDirect.
Suddenly (after about a week of using it), it starts shutting down, beeps, and the internal fan goes on. Once I was able to restart it right away, but now I can't seem to restart it (if I do, the beep and fan starts).
Help please!
Thanks.

Do you get any specific beep pattern? Like 1-3-3-1? This latter would mean a RAM/memory problem.

WD External Hard Drive - Not Enough USB Power?

Hello, I have a Western Digital External Hard Drive that I've had for about 5 years. It plugs in/loads through the USB port. However, it hasn't worked when I plug it in to my MAC anymore. The red light comes on like it is getting power, but the blue light that typically comes on as well blinks a few times, then you hear the external hard drive shutting back down. Needless to say, it isn't loading anymore, and I can't access my files on the drive. I'm thinking/hoping that maybe (for some odd reason) it isn't getting enough power through my MAC's USB port anymore. Is this possible? If so, what can I do to solve this problem. Thanks for any help!

Depends on whether the drive's motor is functional and the drive can be mounted. In that case you could use recovery software if the drive isn't otherwise accessible. If it's dead and inaccessible then you would need to send it to an expensive data recovery service.
General File Recovery
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.
You could consider getting a power supply for it. They usually aren't very expensive. Or you could try a different enclosure that supported Firewire (if your MB has a FW port.) You could also try it on a different computer.

OK, Dropped frames due to firewire+external hard drive+camcorder?

I have an iMac 2.4GHz , 1G Memory (I know this is less than ideal). I have a Firelite Smartdisk 120G plugged into iMac firewire. I am daisychaining my CanonZR500 into the external drive. When I capture video I have lots of dropped frames.
Anyone tell me why? Do I need a better external drive?
Thanks

Not all Canon cameras have connection issues, but hanging around this site I've come to recognize their ability to connect in FCP is the most problematic of all the camera brands. If you have a Canon camcorder, and can not get it to connect up with FCP, the following is a way to sort through the issues and get it to work. Some are elegant - some are ugly.
Before we go any farther -
• You should be using 'Firewire Basic' as the control protocol. If you aren't, go change it and try again.
• Also, verify that you have a solid installation of Quicktime. You may want to reinstall it using the 'delete receipts' method. Do a quick search here on the site - it is mentioned daily if not hourly.
With some confidence that the software installation and camera settings are correct ... the most direct solution is to purchase another, non-Canon device to use as your capturing machine. The Sony DSR-11 is highly recommended for DV work. A deck will save wear and tear on the camera's lightweight drive mechanism and will allow you to permanently connect a NTSC/PAL monitor for proper viewing. If you are working with HDV, you may have other issues ...
Beyond that, the path you take depends on the model of computer you own.
1. If you have a G5 tower or a MacPro, capture to a second internal drive with only the camera attached. If you need to move material to firewire drive, disconnect the camera. A second internal drive is quite inexpensive these days if you do not already have one.
2. If you have a G5 tower (PCI) MacPro (PCIe), G4 powerbook (PCMCIA) or MacBookPro (Expresscard 34) with an available slot, purchase the appropriate firewire card for the slot. Connect your camera to the card and you should be good to go. The new card creates a unique bus and will avoid collisions with the external drives.
3. If you do not have a slot or a second internal drive and you are stuck with the camera, welcome to the camera/drive shuffle.
• shut down and remove the external hard drive(s) from the system
• connect the camera directly to the firewire port of the computer
• start the camera then the computer
• capture to your internal (system) hard drive
• shut down the camera and computer
• disconnect the camera and reconnect the external hard drive(s)
• start hard drive(s) and computer
• move captured files to external hard drive(s)
• edit
If you output back to tape or wish to view your work on an external Video (NTSC or PAL) monitor, you need to set up the camera to use the firewire out as the A/DV converter or VTR - which means reversing the steps:
• copy the file back to the internal drive
• shut everything down
• disconnect the external drive(s)
• connect the camera to the firewire port (and the TV to the camera if needed)
• start the camera then the computer
• play the file.
One caveat here - You may have difficulty getting the file back to tape without dropping frames. Playing files off of the system drive is very demanding and they may have a hard time keeping up.
All in all, if you do not have the option for second bus (i.e. iMacs, eMacs, iBooks, MacBooks) you may want to think about a computer with expandable options next time.
There is the option of capturing using iMovie, but that brings on it's own set of problems and is not recommended.
Good luck.
x

I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?

I just backed up my mac to an external hard drive using Time Machine. What would happen if I turn Time Machine off and then plug the external hard drive back into my computer?
What I am ultimately wanting to do is make more room on my computer by backing up all of my files onto the external hard drive and then deleting them off of my computer. However, neededing to be able to retrieve them from the external hard drive later down the road.
From what I have read and am trying to understand, is that I probably shouldn't have used time machine. I need to use the external hard drive like a basic flash drive where I can put things on and get things off without having it automatically update through time machine everytime I connect it to my computer.
Not tech savvy at all and barely understand basics. I need very simple and easy to understand explanations.

sydababy wrote:
and then deleting them off of my computer.
BIG BIG MISTAKE ..... youre making a linchpin deathtrap for your data trying to shove everything on a single fragile HD.
Dont suffer the tragedy other people make, buy another or 2 more HD, theyre cheap as dust.
The number of people who have experienced terror by having a single external HD backup is enormous. One failure that WILL HAPPEN, and kaput,......all gone!
Dont do it, its all about redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.
follow here:
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection
Deleting them off your computer is fine....having only ONE copy is extremely BAD.
The Tragedy that will be, the tragedy that never should be
Always presume correctly that your data is priceless and takes a very long time to create and often is irreplaceable. Always presume accurately that hard drives are extremely cheap, and you have no excuse not to have multiple redundant copies of your data copied on hard drives and squirreled away several places, lockboxes, safes, fireboxes, offsite and otherwise.
Hard drives aren't prone to failure…hard drives are guaranteed to fail (the very same is true of SSD). Hard drives dont die when aged, hard drives die at any age, and peak in death when young and slowly increase in risk as they age.
Never practice at any time for any reason the false premise and unreal sense of security in thinking your data is safe on any single external hard drive. This is never the case and has proven to be the single most common horrible tragedy of data loss that exists.
Many 100s of millions of hours of lost work and data are lost each year due to this single common false security. This is an unnatural disaster that can avoid by making all data redundant and then redundant again. If you let a $60 additional redundant hard drive and 3 hours of copying stand between you and years of work, then you've made a fundamental mistake countless 1000s of people each year have come to regret.

I have an older macbook pro and the hard drive is starting to go (making loud noises). i tried to back up to an external hard drive (my passport essential se) using time machine and the computer keeps shutting down. suggestions to complete backup please?

I have an older macbook pro and the hard drive is starting to go (making loud noises). i tried to back up to an external hard drive (my passport essential se) using time machine and the computer keeps shutting down. the same thing happens when just trying to save my pictures from iphoto to a flash drive. suggestions to complete backup please?

Sounds like you'll need to access that drive while it is not booted. You need to replace it anyway, so do that, then one way or another (ext enclusure, et), access it and copy files.
If you keep trying to boot it, you might kill it for good and not get your files, so just swap it out first.

Why does my external hard drive LACIE shut down on its own

I have an LACIE 500G external hard drive connected to my iMAC via USB which has recently (a couple of weeks) started to shut down by itself. This does not happen when I use it on a PC. What's the problem and how can I solve it?

Go to: Apple > System Preferences > Energy Saver and check to make sure that the box for "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" is unchecked.

External hard drive does not shut down

Hello, When my mini mac goes to sleep my samsung external hard drive does not shut down or dismount properly. when i wake computer i have a error message stating improperly ejected hard drive. It also does not reconize HD until I disconnect and reconnet??? PLEASE HELP Thank you

My Mini was doing the same thing until I reset the PRAM. With four external drives. They would stop inadvertently with an "improperly ejected" error. Granted two of the drives went bad (6 and 7 years old) but a brand spanking new Seagate and a 3 year old Hitachi drive doing the same. Haven't seen the error since resetting the PRAM.
If you don't know how to do that, Reboot while holding the Cmd+Opt+P+R keys until your hear the startup chime three times and then release the keys.

External Hard Drive won't shut down

New MacBook Pro 15" and Tiger my Lacie external hard drive does not turn off when the computer is shut down.
MacBook Pro 15" Mac OS X (10.4.9)

You need to provide more information about the drive. Is it bus powered or AC powered? If it's bus powered, you should probably contact LaCie support and ask them. If it's AC powered, then naturally you'd need to shut it off separtely.

External hard drive won't shut down after switch from OS10.5 to OS10.4.11

i recently chanded my OS from 10.5 to 10.4.11 (as a programme i want to use is not compatible with leopard), but since i have done this my external hard-drive won't shut down automatically when i shut down my mac. i have to switch it off at the plug instead.
can anyone suggest how i can get it to do this again?
i'm a little concerned that i'm damaging the external drive by turning it off manually all the time..
thanks

Some hard drives shut off with shutdown, some don't. Sometimes hard drives that did shut off with one system will not do the same with a different system. My hard drives which did shut off, prior to 10.5 now stay on.
This is not really a problem as all hard drives spin down after 10- 20 minutes when not in use, whether your computer is on or off. Leaving the drive on is fine, shutting it off manually is fine.
-mj
[email protected]

When i click on my external hard drive the screen goes dark and a msg pops up saying i have to shut down my computer by holding the power button and then restart it. when i do that i get the same result every time. it worked perfectly last night..

when i click on my external hard drive the screen goes dark and a msg pops up saying i have to shut down my computer by holding the power button and then restart it. when i do that i get the same result every time. it worked perfectly last night..

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Ifou don't see any reports listed, but you know there was a panic, you may have chosen Diagnostic and Usage Messages from the log list. Choose DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION instead.
In the Console window, select
DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION ▹ System Diagnostic Reports
(not Diagnostic and Usage Messages) from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
There is a disclosure triangle to the left of the list item. If the triangle is pointing to the right, click it so that it points down. You'll see a list of reports. A panic report has a name that begins with "Kernel" and ends in ".panic". Select the most recent one. The contents of the report will appear on the right. Use copy and paste to post the entire contents—the text, not a screenshot.
If you don't see any reports listed, but you know there was a panic, you may have chosen Diagnostic and Usage Messages from the log list. Choose DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION instead.
In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.)
Please don’t post other kinds of diagnostic report.
I know the report is long, maybe several hundred lines. Please post all of it anyway.

Mac shuts down when I turn my external hard drive

Hello,
I installed Yosemite 2 days ago, and something when wrong right away: when I turned off my LaCie external hard drive, my 27 inches iMac immediately shuts down (I tried a couple of times), to restart a few seconds later. A message lets me know if I want to send a notice of the problem to Apple (which I did), and then everything is fine. Except its not, and whenever I turn off that hard drive (that is connected through thunderbolt), same thing happens. It never happened with the previous OS, so I hate myself right now for moving onto Yosemite.
Does anyone when through the same thing, and possibly has a fix ? Thanks.

Hmmm. Did you ever install any external software (i.e. some LaCie installer disk) or something? That's my guess, that you have 3rd party software (which is totally not necessary) which is incompatible with Yosemite and is causing a kernel panic. The solution would be to uninstall the software - it is never necessary to use 3rd party software to use a hard disk, and it can cause system instability and data loss.
If you don't know how find this out, you could download and run a program called 'etrecheck' (just Google it) and post the output here.

HT3275 I encrypted my WD elements SE external hard drive with Time Machine and now everytime i enter my password it shuts downs my mac book pro. I contacted WD and they say its an issue with Time Machine?

Any advice?

Hi, I tried your advice and it tells me the external drive is ok, and the ERASE section is grey, probably because I encrypted the disk!?!
Still the same issue: every time I enter my password to access the external hard drive, it restarts the macbook and I get a screen that says: the computer restarted because of a problem... so frustrating!
Any other ideas?

External Hard drive shut down

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